5.  The applicant was born in 1971 and lives in Vierumäki.
6.  The applicant was suspected of having supplied large amounts of illegal drugs to other persons for distribution. The pre-trial investigation against the applicant and other suspects was concluded on 24 September 2003.
7.  During the pre-trial investigation, the applicant had been represented by a court appointed counsel, J.T. On an unspecified date prior to the trial J.T. informed the Kuopio District Court (käräjäoikeus, tingsrätten), which was the court of jurisdiction, of the dates when he would not be available due to other engagements. According to the applicant, the court had then informed J.T. that the trial dates had already been fixed. On 28 October 2003 J.T. was informed that in such a large case the court would not be able to arrange the trial dates to suit the lawyers' requests and that a representative should arrange for a substitute to deal with other pending cases. The court asked J.T. whether he would prefer that the applicant be appointed another representative.
8.  On 31 October 2003 the public prosecutor brought charges against the applicant and twelve other defendants in the Kuopio District Court. The prosecution evidence comprised, inter alia, recordings of telephone conversations obtained through police interception.
9.  The court's oral hearing was held in nine sessions between 11 and 21 November 2003. The applicant appeared in person at six of those sessions. At four of them he was represented by J.T. and at the other two by a different lawyer.
10.  During the session of 13 November 2003 the applicant and two other defendants requested access to certain recordings in the possession of the police but not included in the case material. They contended that those recordings concerned business arrangements other than the alleged drugs trading, and other material supporting their innocence. The prosecutor opposed the request, stating that a number of recordings, to the necessary extent, had been included in the case file. He further maintained that recordings of such telephone conversations which did not support the charges had also been included in the file.
11.  In order to provide the court with further evidence in the matter, the prosecutor called the investigating police officer to the stand. In its minutes, the court summarised his statement as follows:
“All recordings of telephone conversations pertaining to the offences in question have been included in the pre-trial investigation material available to the parties. Recordings not related to the matter were either destroyed at once or removed later. The threshold for including recordings to the case material has been low. In case of doubt as to whether a given recording was related to the matter or not, it has been attached to the case material. As far as the witness could recall, there had been 55 conversations between [the applicant] and [another defendant], of which 23 had been attached to the case material.”
The witness had also explained that the recordings gathered during the investigation had indeed disclosed a number of other dealings between the defendants concerning, inter alia, procuring and trading in cars and car parts.
12.  Relying on the above witness testimony the court rejected the defendants' request finding that all relevant recordings had been included in the pre-trial investigation material, submitted at the disposal of the court and the parties. The court noted that the police had operated under the duty to include in the case file recordings both for and against the suspects. The court detected no evidence of misconduct by the police. Nor did the evidence support the alleged necessity of gaining access to the remaining recordings.
13.  On 11 December 2003 the court found the applicant guilty of drugs offences and sentenced him to five years' imprisonment. In its assessment, the court relied mainly on recordings of telephone conversations, telephone metering information concerning telecommunications between the defendants and police observations recorded in the pre-trial investigation report.
14.  The applicant appealed to the Itä-Suomi Court of Appeal (hovioikeus, hovrätten) claiming that the lower court had refused him the right to submit as fresh evidence recordings of telephone conversations concerning procuring, trading in cars and car parts and attempts by one of his co-defendants, R.V., to purchase drugs from sources other than the applicant. Those recordings, favourable to his defence, had not been included in the prosecution evidence. The applicant therefore requested that the police be ordered to provide the court with all the remaining recordings. Later he limited his request to only those recordings involving himself and R.V. He also asked for a chronological list of recordings destroyed by the police.
15.  In his letter of appeal, the applicant also argued that he had not been given adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his defence as the District Court had fixed the dates for its oral hearing without consulting J.T., who had been forced to send a substitute for two sessions. The applicant also criticised the lower court's assessment of evidence specifying several telephone conversations which the court had allegedly interpreted to his disadvantage in breach of the presumption of innocence. He further maintained that the District Court had not given sufficient reasons for its conclusions.
16.  On 28 May 2004 the Court of Appeal decided to grant the applicant's request concerning the remaining recordings, referring to Article 6 § 1 of the Convention in that connection. The court found that an opportunity to have access to those recordings still in the possession of the police was important for building a proper defence. The Court of Appeal refused, however, the applicant's request concerning a list of the destroyed recordings. It found that the applicant had not presented sufficient reasons in support of that request and that the fairness of the proceedings would not be compromised if he did not receive such a list.
17.  In the subsequent oral hearing, held in eleven sessions between 24 August and 9 September 2004, the Court of Appeal was presented with the same evidence as the District Court. It also received fresh evidence, including recordings of telephone conversations submitted by the applicant.
18.  During the oral hearing the applicant contested the fairness of the proceedings. He asserted that the evidence included in the pre-trial investigation material, and presented by the prosecution, was neither reliable nor sufficient as the telephone metering information was erroneous and a number of recordings of telephone conversations had been destroyed. He claimed that the pre-trial investigation had been insufficient in other aspects as well, for instance, not all of R.V.'s relevant drug dealings had been investigated. The court was also presented with the argument that part of the evidence had been obtained illegally through unlawful house searches.
19.  On 7 October 2004 the Court of Appeal dismissed the applicant's appeal, upholding the District Court's judgment.
20.  As to the arguments concerning the alleged unfairness of the proceedings, the court observed that the applicant had been given access to a number of fresh recordings, according to his request. The court noted that, pursuant to the Coercive Measures Act (pakkokeinolaki, tvångmedelslag, Act No. 450/1987) as in force at the time of the investigation, the police had been obliged to destroy any information not related to the suspected offence.
21.  The court went on to state that the facts of the case did not give any reason to believe that the destroyed recordings had been relevant to the case. As to those recordings submitted by the applicant at the appellate stage the court stated that, firstly, they had not contained any relevant new information and, secondly, they had been irrelevant to the case. Having also received testimony from the investigating police officer, the court did not subscribe to the argument about the alleged insufficiency of the pre-trial investigation. Nor did the court find any other reason to suspect that the fairness of the proceedings had been jeopardised.
22.  As to the subject matter, the Court of Appeal firstly referred to the District Court's reasoning and stated that the fresh evidence produced on appeal did not contradict the evidence already presented in the case. The court concluded that, while no single piece of evidence as such was sufficient for a conviction, the evidence as a whole was enough for the guilty verdict. It went on to give more specific reasons of its own reflecting the evidence produced before it. The court stated, inter alia, that in assessing the evidence it had taken into account the arguments made against the charges and the fact that the applicant had not been the only person to have supplied drugs to R.V.
23.  The applicant sought leave to appeal to the Supreme Court (korkein oikeus, högsta domstolen) relying to a large extent on his previous arguments. He maintained that the police had destroyed relevant information which would have shown that he had not been the person supplying drugs to his co-defendants. He also contended that the Court of Appeal had failed to comment on his arguments concerning inadequate time and facilities for the preparation of his defence, the errors in and unreliability of the telephone metering information, and the lower court's insufficient reasoning. He further claimed that the Court of Appeal had not allowed him to submit telephone metering information as fresh evidence but had permitted the prosecution to do so.
24.  On 27 May 2005 the Supreme Court refused leave to appeal.
25.  In a decision given on 23 November 2005 the Deputy Parliamentary Ombudsman (eduskunnan apulaisoikeusasiamies, riksdagens biträdande justitieombudsman) found that, during the pre-trial investigation of the above case, the police had searched an apartment occupied by the applicant's co-defendant four times without following the lawful procedure, that is without informing the occupant about the search. During those searches a certain amount of drugs had been found. The Deputy Parliamentary Ombudsman issued a reprimand for unlawful conduct to the police officials involved.